You know, it wasn't until I wrote, "the power of a bug's wings" to describe this new VW Golf GT commercial that I realized what the hell the concept was behind this spot. I haven't heard a VW referred to as a bug for so long, the spot just didn't make sense. Punch buggy, yea. But not bug. Of course, I could be interpreting this completely wrong and the concept's really about the relationship between a tsetse fly and the new Golf's TSI, whatever that is. Give it a watch and tell us what went on in that creative conference room when this thing was dreamed up.

Fully embracing the notion and value of consumer generated content, MasterCard, during the Oscars, will air two commercial which say basically nothing. The ads, Sailboat and Typewriter, will follow the customary format of listing prices for various items and closing with the final item labeled "priceless." However, the item lines in these ads will be left blank. The ads will close encouraging people to go to priceless.com, click on "Write a Priceless Ad Contest" and complete the commercial by filling in the blanks using their own words.

Toyota Canada will unveil a, two-minute feature commercial during this Sunday's telecast of The Academy Awards on Canada's CTV. The ad will run only in Canada and only once inside the Academy Awards telecast during the first commercial break. The long-form spot, entitled "What You Want Is What You Need" will introduce Canadians to the new, restyled 2007 Toyota Camry. The two minute commercial will be followed up with :60 and :30 versions to be aired on CTV through May.

Cheeky New Zealand vodka marketer 42 Below is at it again. This time the company is highlighting its Stil vodka with a "Win A Russian Bride" competition complete with video and print ads. Geoff Ross, chief executive of the 42 Below company, explains the promotion thusly, telling the Sunday Star-Times, "For the single Kiwi bloke who might not be an All Black or very good looking, this is a chance to get hooked up with somebody pretty hot. The ideal woman for the Kiwi bloke is one who keeps him fed and looked after all day and meets all his needs."

Of course it's all a tongue in cheek joke but, predictably, not everyone is taking it that way. View the video/ad here.

We think there's a great point behind this new Truth campaign commercial in which the notion of changing a corporate name to avoid negative connotations is debunked but the execution just seems, well, not so compelling. Maybe it's just us. Maybe we're stuck one of the campaign's earlier spots in which the "Marlboro Man" rides a farting cow. Who knows. The spot is a follow up to orange arrow-themed campaign launched last year which was created by Arnold Worldwide of Boston and Crispin Porter + Bogusky of Miami. See the spot here.

Like the emotion felt while watching the UK Department of Transport cell phone ad, these ads, which have been floating around since late 2005, from DDB Canada for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia's long-running CounterAttack don't-drink-and-drive campaign fill one with dread. Following the same sudden-shock approach the UK DOT ad used, two of the three commercial feature kids in a car driven by a drunk and a third features a guy talking about the negative aspects of drunk driving. All three ads have endings that while somewhat predictable, still shock. The ads are said to begin airing this summer. See all three here.

To counteract American's love for credit and denial of debt, the Homeownership Preservation Foundation had to demonstrate just how annoying debt can be in the only terms Americans can understand - annoyingly humorous television commercials. Addressing the 2.9 million home foreclosures that have occurred in the last five years, Minneapolis agency Colle+McVoy created two public service announcements that use annoyance to demonstrate just how annoying debt and it's result can be. The two spots, Loud Mouth and Annoying were directed by Brendan Gibbons of Los Angeles' Hungry Man Productions.

As a follow up to its GTI Fast commercials, VW has unleashed another set called Un-Pimp Your Auto which, as the title eludes does just that with three spots bringing three pimped pimped out cars and their owners back to reality all while highlighting the new VW GTI Mk5. As a bonus, the ads feature that long haired dude from FOX's Prison Break who got offed last year. He needed a new gig anyway and he got one.

We're not sure how recent this is but In the vein of the Apple/Postal Service and Apple/Lugz rip offs, we've been made aware of yet another ad-related rip off. This time it's fashion label French Connection seemingly ripping off a video created by record label Groovecutters for a recent television ad. The rip off even uses the same actresses and the same setting which leads one to believe it's more of a wink/nod than a blatant rip off. No matter, Groovecutters has unleashed their legal department on French Connection so, no doubt, there will be some enjoyable bitching to come out of all of this.

The original Groovecutters video is here. The French Connection ad is here. A comparison is here.